Starspangledbanner Ready to Fly High

Over two years ago, the tale of Starspangledbanner (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) was recounted on these pages. His dual-hemisphere racing career saw him become one of the top sprinters on the planet and an unusual complication with his ownership saw a 5% share in him being sold on an Australian bloodstock trading website. The surprise and disappointment of Starspangledbanner's subfertility in his second career led to him being returned to racing and almost gelded, but then the phenomenal performance of his first small crop brought him back into people's minds. Then, defying all veterinary logic, his return to fertility gave him a second chance at stud. It was quite a story.

Now, the passage of time has led us to the beginning of the next chapter of this tale, with the first of Starspangledbanner's big crops being just months away from reaching the racecourse.  Based on the evidence of Starspangledbanner's small crops to date, there is understandably a great amount of anticipation and indeed expectation that he can prove to be the real deal.

From his first Northern Hemisphere crop of just 33 foals in 2012, Starspangledbanner produced a Group 1 winner in The Wow Signal (Ire), two Group 2 winners in Home Of The Brave (Ire) and Anthem Alexander (Ire), the Group 3 winner Spangled (GB), the listed winners Silver Rainbow (Ire), Meliora (Ire) and Last Gift (Ire), as well as three other stakes performers including the Grade 1-placed Great Wide Open (Ire). All told, that first crop produced 14 runners that achieved RPRs in excess of 95, with five of those reaching in excess of 110. It's hard not to view this as a sensational performance given the low numbers of foals produced from a €15,000 covering fee.

However, his subfertility put paid to his prospects of producing bigger crops in the years that followed, with his efforts in 2012 prior to being returned to training yielding just 11 foals in 2013. That would prove to be his last season covering mares in Ireland until 2016, with small crops of foals from mostly moderate mares in Australia in the meantime.

Despite these restricted opportunities, Starspangledbanner still showed what he could do as a sire, with his 2015 crop in Australia producing the listed winner and Group 2-placed performer Thrillster (Aus) as well as the exciting Hong Kong-based sprinter Styling City (Aus), who has won four of his first six starts. Most recently, he was responsible for a 2-year-old filly called Brooklyn Hustle (Aus) who made an eye-catching winning debut at Moonee Valley in Australia last month.

It is the crop of foals that Starspangledbanner sired after returning to Ireland in 2016 that is now the focus of attention. While he was still considered a risky proposition as a sire when first arriving back to Ireland, word gradually spread of his encouraging return to fertility and the quantity and quality of his mares increased as the 2016 season progressed. Those exploits resulted in 72 foals that are currently yearlings and have been lighting up the yearling sales in recent months.

The 37 yearlings sold at public auction registered an average of over 75,000gns. The highlight amongst them was the half-sister to the smart sprinter Mrs Gallagher who realised 750,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1. She was bought by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock on behalf of Godolphin. Other highlights came at the Goffs Orby Sale where a colt sold for €300,000 to Ric Wylie Bloodstock and another colt was bought by Form Bloodstock for €180,000. He had five other yearlings that realised at least €100,000.

Of his yearlings that didn't go through the sales ring, pedigrees that catch the eye are a half-sister to the listed winner Salateen (Ire), a half-brother to the listed winner Arya Tara (Ire) that will go into training with Joseph O'Brien and a half-brother to the highly-regarded juvenile trained by Aidan O'Brien called Old Glory (Ire).

As interesting as it will be to see Starspangledbanner's first big crop on the track in 2019, the prospect of his 2018 crop hitting the track in 2020 is arguably even more exciting. As could have been anticipated, with his exploits in 2016 having re-established him as a viable option for breeders, the quality of mares sent to him in 2017 was stronger than he received in 2016.

From the returns that have been made to this point, there are at least 72 foals by Starspangledbanner on the ground. Of the 21 of them that went through the sale rings in recent weeks, five of them realised €100,000 or more. Among those that were not offered for sale as foals include a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Endowing (GB) and a half-brother to the Group 2 winner Raven's Lady (GB).

Looking even further ahead, Starspangledbanner has reportedly got a career-high 114 mares scanned in foal in Ireland this year, with 75 of them having either earned black-type, bred a black-type horse or being a sibling to a stakes winner. These include the Group 3 winners Flowers Of Spring (Ire) and Ponty Acclaim (Ire), the dam of the multiple Grade I winner Obviously (Ire) and the dam of the Group 3 winner Hamza (Ire).

All of the above suggests that Starspangledbanner's story should yet have some successful chapters to come. Stories such as this don't come around very often. If his progeny deliver as hoped on the racecourse in the coming years, it will be one that will rival any that has emerged from the bloodstock world in recent decades.